Review
Dark Roots is a remarkable collection of short stories,
and a sure bet for a good weekend read. Cate Kennedy's writing is sharp; her
details are meaningful but not meandering, her dialogue spot-on and funny but
also totally believable, the plot lines dramatic, but so well crafted that your
trust never wavers. Writing about predicaments we're curious about (fatal
accidents, murder, drug smuggling, infidelity, sabotage, unwanted pregnancies),
Kennedy anchors her high-stakes plotlines in the most familiar emotions, making
generous, unmanipulative stories that pull the reader in for thrills and
revelations. Whether writing in first, second, or third person, about a
fed-up-housewife or a disturbed nine year old boy, Kennedy hits the mark from
the very first line, nailing the subtleties in tone, details, and dialogue.
A quick glance at the credits page...
Beyond the Book
This may be Cate Kennedy's first collection, but she's won prizes for her
short fiction since 1994. One of her stories lost several Australian
competitions – and then in 2006 won the biggest prize of them all: publication
in
The New Yorker. Unfortunately, short stories fall somewhere just above
poetry and below everything else in terms of their ability to generate sales,
which is painful news for the short-story-lover -- and even more devastating for
the short story
writer. As Kennedy lamented in a 2006 interview with the
Australian newspaper
The Age, "[Editors] say 'I love this, but I can't get it past the
accountants'. That worries me, I don't want that to happen. Even an editor at a
literary publishing house said, 'We all think these are...
